Los Banos Rotary Club History
Rotarians Hear Fresno Attorney

A practical, common-sense message pertaining to America’s place in the world of tomorrow, was presented to members of the Los Banos Rotary Club Tuesday noon by Clarance Kincheloe, deputy district attorney of Fresno county.

Declaring that America today stands on the threshold of the greatest future ever faced by any nation, Kincheloe warned that all Americans must realize that the world has shrunk tremendously in the past few years—that there is no longer any safety in distance between countries.

We must, he said, manifest a spirit of mutual understanding and respect with the peoples of other countries, and learn to live with other countries as we have so successfully learned to live with our neighbors at home.

Emphasizing the necessity for respecting other customs, other beliefs and philosophies in order that we might be worthy of mutual respect, he cited two examples of national philosophy and doctrine that are entirely foreign and different than our own: namely that of Russia and India, as represented by the two great leaders, the late Nicoli Lenin and Mahatma Ghandi.

Two hundred millions revere the memory of Lenin, Kincheloe said, because of the man’s idealic love of his fellow man. Though we do not approve of the communistic type of government he created, we should respect the right of his people to believe as they wish. Of Ghandi, Kincheloe said that in his mind no purer spirit has ever worked for the welfare of mankind. Without a harmful word or without striking a blow, Ghandi has changed and benefited the lives of all India people, and is unshackling them from the cruel, brutal caste system that has held them without mercy for 5,000 years.

Concluding, Kincheloe said that America must think of itself, not as individualistic, but as human beings and citizens of the world, willing and able to assume leadership in the world on the side of law, order and liberty.

May 28, 1946

 

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